Economic ignorance abounds in Congressed, as witnessed by the comments of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.). The Chicago Democrat has decried Apple’s iPad, saying the device “is now probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs.”
Jackson laments Chicago State University’s move towards electronic textbooks, and asks,“what becomes of … all the jobs associated with paper?”
To which I might say, “Why didn’t someone stop Johannes Gutenberg from inventing the printing press? Won’t someone please think of the monks! Look at what happened to all the jobs associated with hand-writing documents?”
Jackson also engages in a little China-bashing, natch (the $5-a-day job of assembling the iPad is done in China, not the U.S.), and he does so though a non-sequitur involving the First Amendment.
Speaking of which, how about we close this piece with a little Mark Twain? “Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
First published by the Detroit News:
http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/watercooler/index.php?blogid=2091